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Archive for July, 2009

ChicagoismynewBlog! has just passed 20,000 hits! Lately, I have had some great comments from industry novices to industry veterans and I want to thank everyone for their support and input. Lets keep this going in a positive direction and, as always, your help is always needed to keep the hits coming. Pass the word on about ChicagoismynewBlog! to anyone you know.

Another picture taken from Onterie Center’s rooftop deck shows two massive lots that have been cleared of their old, historic buildings. A previous post talked about what will take place on the empty lot to the left so check the post out by clicking HERE!

The massive lot that is smack dab in the middle of this picture used to house the Lakeside Veterans Administration Hospital which was located at 333 E. Huron Street in Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood. The hospital closed in 2003 and just sat there surrounded by Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s state of the art buildings so what is Northwestern to do with this huge piece of potential? The initial plans call for a parking garage…covering the whole city block…

This picture taken from Onterie Center’s roofdeck shows the pretty cool roof of 680 N. Lakeshore Drive in Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood. This building was originally called the American Furniture Mart but is now called the “new Playboy building” because Playboy’s headquarters is located inside. In addition to offices, this former world’s largest building has over 400 condominiums, a Treasure Island grocery store, retail stores, and restaurants.

As an added bonus, the building with the “M” right behind the “new Playboy building” is the new Prentice Women’s Hospital that just opened up. If you look closely, you can see a bit of green roof too! Props to Prentice.

If you can’t tell, I’m enjoying myself with these green roof posts. This green roof comes from Streeter Place, a new construction apartment building in Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood. Streeter Place, located at 355 E. Ohio Street, is right next door to its sister apartment building called The Streeter. I have been inside two apartments in The Streeter and I was impressed with what I saw. Both buildings are finished with green roofs, a lot of beautiful landscaping, and brick pavers which is great at preventing excessive water runoff. Thank you to “Chiman” from Skyscrapercity for the first picture.

At park level, these nine Aqua townhomes are located under the outdoor deck and ballroom/conference center of the impressive Aqua building. I am a fan of Aqua’s townhomes because without them, there would be a major blank parking garage wall facing out towards the rest of Lakeshore East. Props go to architect Jeanne Gang and Studio Gang Architects for integrating these townhomes perfectly. These townhomes appear to be three or four floors tall and they have an amazing view of Lakeshore East’s six acre park.

I just can’t get enough of the wavy/curvy Aqua building in Chicago’s Lakeshore East neighborhood. Next time you’re in the neighborhood, I highly recommend you taking a look. They just opened up their amazing outdoor amenity deck. I’m jealous…

Thanks to Skyscraperpage user, ‘harryc,’ who posted these great pictures of an almost complete 45 story office building, located at 353 N. Clark Street in Chicago’s River North neighborhood. 353 N. Clark is being developed and anchored by Mesirow Financial and from what I understand, the green roof is located on top of the building’s retail and underground parking entrance as well as the 45th floor mechanical penthouse. Props for the cool design too!

I’m a huge fan of green roofs from the planning process, the installation of materials, and I love most when the plantings mature. This green roof is on top of the parking garage of 600 N. Lakeshore Drive, a very successful condominium building developed by Belgravia Group. In case you couldn’t guess, the building is located at 600 N. Lakeshore Drive. Go check out their sales center, open 7 days a week from 10am – 6pm, or give them a call at 312-730-4849.

A big thanks goes out to ‘Chiman,’ a Skyscrapercity user, for the first two pictures.

This picture was taken from Northerly Island one sunny, hot, summer day. Because of Mayor Daley’s…ahem…tenacity…Northerly Island has been turned into a prairie with native wildflowers and plants and it even has some good trails to run and ride your bike on. Plus, the beach is rarely packed like most lakefront beaches.

This article from ChicagoRealEstateDaily.com, talks about an upcoming apartment conversion from Village Greenin the historic Gothic Revival office building, located at 188 W. Randolph Street, in the Loop. This 45 story building served as office space but became obsolete and went into terrible disrepair. As recent as a few years ago, pieces of terra cotta facade from the tower portion of the building dislodged and fell to the street below…not good. Since then, much of the tower has been covered to prevent more from falling.

According to the article, there will be 313 apartments with a cost of $450,000 per unit when renovation and conversion is complete. Because of this extremely high cost, the buildings original owner planned to demolish the building because the cost to build an entirely new building would be much less than converting to apartments. Construction is slated to begin in early 2010 and should be complete in 2012!